He and Mr. Coxwell started from the Crystal Palace at a little past one o’clock on the 18th of April, 1863, and in an hour and thirteen minutes after starting were 24,000 feet high.  Then they thought it would be just as well to see where they were, so they opened the valve to let out the gas, and came down a mile in three minutes.  When, at a quarter to three, they were still 10,000 feet high Mr. Coxwell caught sight of Beachy Head and exclaimed:  “What’s that?” On looking over the car Mr. Glaisher found that they seemed to be overhanging the sea!

Not a moment was to be lost.  They both clung on to the valve-line, rending the balloon in two places.  Down, down, down at a tremendous speed they went; the earth appeared to be coming up to them with awful swiftness; and a minute or two later with a resounding crash they struck the ground at Newhaven close to the sea.  The balloon had been so damaged that it did not drag along, and though most of the instruments were smashed their lives were saved.

Much valuable scientific information has been obtained by Mr. Glaisher, and by those who, like him, have made perilous journeys into cloudland.

THE SOLDIER WITH THE MAGIC WAND.

THE STORY OF GENERAL GORDON.

“That great man and gallant soldier and true Christian, Charles Gordon.”—­THE PRINCE OF WALES.

Charles George Gordon was born at Woolwich on the 28th of January, 1833.

In early life he was delicate, and of all professions that of a soldier seemed least suitable for him.  At school he made no mark in learning.

He was a fearless lad, with a strong will of his own.  When he was only nine years old, and was yet unable to swim, he would throw himself into deep water, trusting to some older boy to get him out.  He was threatened on one occasion that he should not go on a pleasure excursion because of some offence he had committed; and when afterwards he was given permission he stubbornly refused the treat—­circus though it was, dear to the heart of a lad.

After passing through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich he obtained in 1852 a commission as a Second Lieutenant of Engineers, and was sent out to the Crimea in December, 1854, with instructions to put up wooden huts for our soldiers, who were dying from cold in that icy land.

On his way he wrote from Marseilles to his mother; and, after telling her of the sights and scenes he has witnessed, mentions that he will leave Marseilles “D.V. on Monday for Constantinople”.

Whilst in the Crimea he worked in the trenches twenty hours at a stretch times without number.

Once when he was leading a party at night he was fired at by his own sentries.  On another occasion he was wounded in the forehead, and continued his work without showing any concern.  He found it dull when no fighting was going on, but when there were bullets flying then it was exciting enough.